Insane spending leads to bad end

Friday

Aug 2, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 2, 2013 at 7:15 PM

As hard as it may be to believe, Detroit was once called the “Paris of the Midwest.” Strategically located between lakes Huron and Erie, it was the industrial heart of the country. But as time went by, it became known more for urban blight and crime.

The Daily News

As hard as it may be to believe, Detroit was once called the “Paris of the Midwest.” Strategically located between lakes Huron and Erie, it was the industrial heart of the country. But as time went by, it became known more for urban blight and crime.

Wracked by race riots in 1967, the city has been in a long decline ever since. Peaking in population at 2 million people in the 1950s, Detroit is now home to only about 700,000. The rest have fled to the suburbs or the Sunbelt.

People can point to a variety of reasons for the city’s financial problem. Most will revolve around the city being cut off from needed revenue sources.

But, like most government in America, Detroit could have made ends meet if it had chosen to limit spending to its appropriate confines.

Spending often sounds good in theory, so opponents usually get a black eye for supposedly being hard-hearted toward the poor, children or the elderly. But the fact is that the least glamorous things that government does are often the most important.

All citizens need a government that disposes of their garbage responsibly and keeps roads paved and bridges safe. People need clean water and sanitary sewers. The problem is that many people take these very necessary and, by the way, very expensive functions of government for granted.

When government handles its finances irresponsibly, it eventually loses its ability to perform its basic functions. Those basic functions affect everyone, including the poor, children and the elderly. In fact, it often affects them first and most cruelly.

For decades now, government at all levels has spent irresponsibly, borrowing money not for capital improvements or special needs but to meet daily operating expenses.

Detroit has discovered where that eventually leads. Its day of reckoning is likely to be the first among many.